Gotham Mondays Interview Series: Erin Richards

So far on Gotham, we know that Erin Richards’ character Barbara Kean is hiding a “big” secret from her fiance, Jim Gordon (Ben McKenzie). What the “big” secret is and how it involves Major Crimes Division officer Renee Montoya (Victoria Cartagena) is still yet to be determined, but Richards told us that it will start to unravel as the series progresses.

“Barbara has been hiding a lot from Jim and herself essentially, and as the series progresses, she starts unraveling a little bit,” the actress revealed during our New York Comic Con roundtable interview session, “Her relationship with Montoya begins to open up and the audience, her, and Jim start to find out a lot more about where she comes from, what these secrets she’s been hiding are, and how that’s going to affect her relationship with Jim.”

Aside from the “big secret,” Richards also told us that Barbara will continue to pry into the Gotham Police Department’s cases.

Photo Credit: Lauren Stern

“She wants to know for the sake of Jim and for the sake of her and Jim’s relationship,” she said, “She can tell there’s something wrong with him and she doesn’t know why. She’s trying to find out what is happening in his work in order to make that better.”

Richards was quick not to give away any spoilers, but she did tell us that Barbara’s intrusive behavior “may or may not end well for her.”

“Barbara is really interesting because she spends the first half of the series feeling like she doesn’t understand that danger and that world. You’ll see later on she has a brush with that and I mean already, Penguin (Robin Lord Taylor) is at her door. It’s all slowly encroaching on her. I don’t want to tell you when or where but there’s one point where she really understands how dangerous Gotham is.”

In addition to hinting at her character’s upcoming plotlines and developments, Richards also shared why she joined the Gotham cast, which she said had to do with writer Bruno Heller’s portrayal of female characters.

“Bruno has written for all of the female characters equally. I think for this program it’s great because even though Barbara is this really strong woman, she also gets to be really lonely, scared, and messed up at the same time,” she said, “It’s like this thing that’s happening for women in TV right now is we don’t have to be this one thing anymore. It’s not black and white. Like every woman and man on the planet, you can be strong, scared, tough and lonely all at the same time, you just play it in different parts. We’re complicated people and we get to show that.”

As the Managing Editor, Lauren Stern is responsible for curating Pop-Break.com’s content. This includes managing the editorial staff, coordinating the content calendar, and assigning publishing dates and deadlines. She graduated Rutgers University with a degree in Journalism and Philosophy. She spends her free time searching for the best gluten-free food in the Tri-State area, playing with her dogs, and reading an insane amount of books. She tweets constantly about pop culture and social issues and hopes you follow her musings @laurenpstern.
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